Border Incident
1949 film by Anthony Mann
Border Incident is a 1949 American film noir featuring Ricardo Montalbán, George Murphy, and Howard Da Silva. Directed by Anthony Mann, the MGM production was written by John C. Higgins from a story by John C. Higgins and George Zuckerman. The film was shot by cinematographer John Alton, who used shadows and lighting effects to involve the audience despite the fact that the film was shot on a low budget.
Plot
Set along the All-American Canal, Mexican farm workers, known as "braceros," camp near the California–Mexico border to receive their work permits so they can enter legally into the United States, while others cross the border illegally. These illegal migrant workers are usually robbed and beaten by bandits as they cross the desert. To combat this problem, two agents, Pablo Rodriguez, a Mexican PJF, and Jack Bearnes, an American Border Patrol agent, are assigned by their respective countries to investigate the gang of bandits.
In a meeting with their superiors, Pablo volunteers to disguise himself as a bracero, while Jack follows and records their contacts. In Mexico, Pablo meets Zopoliote who connects him with Owen Parkson, an American broker posing as a rancher. Late at night, Pablo persuades Parkson to help cross the border as he claims the police are after him. At first reluctant, Parkson agrees and directs him to a truck transporting farm workers.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Border Incident” as 1949 film by Anthony Mann. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1949 film by Anthony Mann. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1144382. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Border Incident”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Border Incident primary sources, Border Incident archive and Border research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Border Incident” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.